A customer posts a complaint on Reddit on Monday. By Wednesday it has a few hundred upvotes and a thread of people saying they had the same problem. Your team finds out on Friday, when someone forwards a screenshot. Nothing about that story is unusual, and almost all of it is avoidable with a simple routine.

This guide shows how to track brand mentions step by step, starting with free methods and moving to paid tools only when you need them. It includes a ready-to-copy query cheat sheet, a weekly routine, and current prices for Brand24 and Awario. Prices and plan limits were checked against independent trackers and review sites on October 25, 2026, not on a hands-on trial of our own.

What counts as a brand mention, and what to do with each type

A brand mention is any online reference to your company, product, founder, or brand name, with or without a link. Not all mentions deserve the same response, which is why it helps to sort them by type before you start.

If you want a response playbook for the complaint category, see our guide on how to monitor brand mentions before complaints become a crisis. This article focuses on setting up the tracking itself.

How to track brand mentions, step by step

The example below uses a fictional brand, Maple & Pine Coffee, to show how each step works. Replace it with your own names.

Step 1: Build your keyword list

Most people track only their company name and miss half the conversations. Make a list with six groups:

• Brand name and variants: "Maple & Pine", "Maple and Pine Coffee".
• Common misspellings: "Mapel & Pine", "Maple Pine Coffee".
• Product names: your best-known products or plans.
• People: founder and spokesperson names.
• Competitors: two or three names, to see how buyers compare you.
• Category phrases: "best coffee subscription", "specialty coffee beginner".

Step 2: Use this query cheat sheet

Google Search operators work well for manual checks, and they are commonly used inside Google Alerts too. Test each query in Google first and check that the first page of results is relevant before you turn it into an alert.

Step 3: Set up Google Alerts

Google Alerts is free. According to Google's help page, you enter a topic, click Show options, and choose how often you get notifications, which types of sites to include, the language, the region, and how many results to see. [1] Third-party guides list the source choices as news, blogs, web, video, books, discussions, and finance, and the frequency choices as as-it-happens, once a day, or once a week. Delivery goes to your email or an RSS feed. [1]

Three settings matter most for brand tracking:

• How many: choose all results for your brand name, because the "only the best results" filter can hide useful mentions.
• How often: daily is enough for most small businesses.
• Region: set it to the United States if you sell mainly there, so overseas pages with a similar name do not flood your inbox.

The limit to know is coverage. Google Alerts finds content that Google has indexed, so it usually shows little from inside social platforms. That is why the next step matters.

Step 4: Add a 20-minute weekly manual check

Once a week, search these places for your brand and competitor names:

1. Reddit search, sorted by new, for each keyword.
2. X and LinkedIn search for your brand name and misspellings.
3. YouTube search for your product name.
4. Review sites that matter for your industry, such as Google Business Profile, Trustpilot, G2, or Capterra.
5. The "News" tab in Google for your brand name.

Step 5: Check what AI assistants say about you

In 2026, many buyers ask an AI assistant before they search. Once a month, ask a few assistants the same questions and record the answers. Responses vary between runs and between tools, so note the date and the tool.

If an answer is wrong, the usual fix is to correct the sources it likely draws from: your own site, directories, and review profiles.

Step 6: Sort, respond, and keep a log

Treat every mention as one of the types in the first table, then log it. A simple spreadsheet is enough, with these columns: date, source, link, type, sentiment, action, owner, and status. The suggested response windows below are starting points. Adjust them to your team.

Your weekly routine

When free methods stop being enough

Free tracking works well until one of these happens: the weekly routine takes more than about an hour, you keep learning about conversations days late, you need sentiment charts for a report, or several people need to see the same data. At that point, a paid tool usually saves more time than it costs.

Brand mention tools compared: pricing checked October 2026

Sources: Brand24 plan figures come from a review verified against brand24.com in August 2026 and cross-checked with other 2026 reviews. [2] [4] Awario figures come from 2026 pricing trackers. [6] [7] The Mention note comes from a competitor's pricing comparison, so confirm it with the vendor. [8] Always check each vendor's pricing page before buying.

Older articles list Brand24 starting at $79 or $99 per month. Those figures predate the current pricing. One review notes the last price change as May 13, 2026. [2] If a page shows the old numbers, treat it as out of date.

Awario or Brand24: which fits?

• Choose Awario if budget is the main concern. Its Starter plan costs less, and one topic can hold several keywords, so a brand name, misspellings, and product names can share a topic. [7] Limits to check: one seat on Starter, data export starting on Pro, and auto-renewal and refund terms. [9]
• Choose Brand24 if you want sentiment charts, alerts, reports, and AI summaries across social sites, news, blogs, forums, reviews, podcasts, and newsletters, and you can afford the higher price. [4] Its pricing page also lists a 30-day money-back promise, apart from custom plans. [4]

How a small business might use Brand24's keyword limit

Brand24 limits plans by keywords and mentions, not by seats, and every plan from Team up includes unlimited users. [2] That makes the keyword budget the key planning step. Here is how a small brand could use the seven keywords on the Team plan:

On G2, Brand24 shows a 4.6 out of 5 rating from 329 reviews, where reviewers praise clear social listening and the ability to compare performance against competitors. [5] Reviews also point to the cost: the entry plan is limited to three keywords, one user, and updates every 12 hours, which is tight for a small business with several products. [4] One hands-on test reported that the free trial allowed 10 keywords and 30,000 mentions, which is more than the entry plan includes, so judge the paid plan by its own limits. [3]

A 14-day test plan for any paid monitoring tool

Common brand monitoring mistakes

• Tracking only the exact brand name. Misspellings and product names often carry most of the conversation.
• Skipping noise filters. A common name without negative keywords fills your inbox with irrelevant results.
• Reading sentiment scores as facts. Automated sentiment can misread sarcasm and jokes. Spot-check it.
• Collecting without acting. A log with no owners and deadlines is just a list.
• Replying without disclosure. If you answer a question about your own product in a public forum, say that you work there.
• Ignoring wrong information. An outdated directory listing can mislead buyers and AI answers for months.

Frequently asked questions

What are brand mentions?

They are online references to a company, product, person, or brand name. They may include a link or not, and they appear on social media, forums, blogs, news sites, review sites, and in AI answers.

How can I track brand mentions for free?

Create Google Alerts for your brand name, misspellings, and product names, then spend about 20 minutes a week searching Reddit, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, and review sites by hand. [1]

Does Google Alerts catch social media mentions?

Only partly. It surfaces content that Google has indexed, so coverage of posts inside social platforms is usually limited. Add manual searches for those.

How much do brand monitoring tools cost?

Awario starts at $49 per month ($29 on annual billing), and Brand24 starts at $249 per month ($199 on annual billing), based on 2026 pricing trackers. Confirm on each vendor's page. [2] [6]

Do Brand24 and Awario offer free trials?

Brand24 lists a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Awario lists a 7-day trial with no card. [2] [6]

What is the difference between brand monitoring and social listening?

Brand monitoring collects mentions of your name. Social listening goes further and analyzes the conversations around a topic to find trends, sentiment, and questions.

How do I check whether AI assistants mention my brand?

Ask the same set of questions in a few assistants once a month, record the answers with the date and tool, and compare them with your own site's facts. Answers vary, so look for patterns, not single results.

Review accuracy note: Prices and plan limits in this guide were checked against independent pricing trackers, review sites, and Google's help page on October 25, 2026. Several sources are published by competing software companies, prices have changed during 2026, and the figures can change again. This guide is based on research rather than a hands-on trial and does not guarantee results.

References

1. Google Search Help: Create an alert — alert options.
2. Software Glimpse: Brand24 review — plans verified against brand24.com in August 2026.
3. Octolens: Brand24 review — hands-on trial notes (published by a competing vendor).
4. MentionKit: Brand24 review — plan limits, trial, money-back note, and cons.
5. G2: Brand24 vs SentiOne — rating and review count.
6. MentionKit: Awario pricing — plans, limits, and trial.
7. Intelligent Tools: Brand mention monitoring tools in 2026 — Awario topics and storage limits.
8. Xpoz: Social listening tools pricing compared — Mention pricing note (published by a competing vendor).
9. Community Tracker: Awario review — refund and renewal notes (published by a competing vendor).
10. FTC: Endorsement Guides—What People Are Asking — affiliate disclosure guidance.